Modified omaha poker game

ABSTRACT

A modification of Omaha Hi-Lo in which each is the player receives four Hole cards. After all the wagering has been completed, each player declares Hi, Lo or both. There is no qualifier for the Lo hand. A player must use two and only two of his Hole cards in each of his Hi hand and his Lo hand. The player with the best Hi hand among those players that have declared Hi wins half the pot; the player with the best Lo hand among those players that have declared Lo wins half the pot. If a player declares both Hi and Lo, then the player must win both ways in order to win.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based on and claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/920172, filed Mar. 26, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety.

This invention relates primarily to a poker game, and more particularly to poker game based on Omaha Hi-Lo poker in which no qualifying hand is required for the Lo hand.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In one of the most popular forms of poker, there are multiple players who play at a poker table. Quite often in these multiple player games, the object for the player is to have a higher ranking poker hand than all of the other players. In order to participate in the game, the players make wagers which are collected in a common pot. Usually, the first wager by each player is called the Ante wager. During the play of the poker game, various betting rounds occur at which each player may make additional wagers. Players may also fold at any point in the poker game upon which the player is withdrawing from further participation in that round of the game. Poker games that have more than one betting round can result in much larger common pots.

At the end of the round of the game, the player with the best poker hand wins the pot. These multiple player poker games can be played as either draw poker games or stud poker games.

Often these poker games are played using community cards. A community card is a card that is shared among all of the players in the game. Typically, community cards are displayed face up in the center of the table so that all players can see the community cards.

A very popular form of community card poker games is the Hold 'Em format. A player initially receives one or more Hole cards which are cards unique to that player. Then a plurality of community cards are displayed during which betting rounds occur. The player with the best poker hand at the end of the game wins the common pot.

In Texas Hold 'Em Poker, each player receives two Hole cards and a round of betting occurs. Then three community cards (the Flop) are displayed and another round of betting occurs. Then a fourth community card (the Turn or Fourth Street) is displayed and another round of betting occurs. Finally, a fifth community card (the River or Fifth Street) is displayed and another round of betting occurs. The player with the best poker hand out of the seven cards (his two Hole cards and the five community cards) wins the common pot.

Omaha Poker plays quite similar to Texas Hold 'Em Poker except that each player initially receives four Hole cards. The display of the community cards and the betting rounds are the same as in Texas Hold 'Em Poker except that in the final determination a player must use two, and only two, of his four Hole cards to make his final five card.

Another version of Omaha is called Omaha Hi-Lo poker. In Hi-Lo games, the pot is split between the Hi hand and the Lo hand. Each player receives four Hole cards and each player must use two, and only two, of his Hole cards for the Hi hand and two, and only two, of his Hole cards for his Lo hand. However, one or two of the same cards may be used in the Hi hand and the Lo hand. The same player hand may win both the Hi and the Lo halves of the pot. A common example of a type of hand that can with both the Hi hand and the Lo hand this is the “Wheel” which is a hand having an Ace-2-3-4-5. The Wheel is a guaranteed winner of the Lo hand and another player would have to have a higher Straight or other higher poker hand such as a Flush or better to beat this hand as the Hi hand.

The Hi hand is determined by traditional poker high hand rankings. The Lo hand is determined by traditional poker low hand rankings in which the Ace is considered the lowest card and straights and flushes are ignored. Omaha Hi-Lo poker is typically played with a requirement that the Lo hand must “qualify”. The typical qualifier is that the Lo hand must not have any card higher than an Eight. In order to qualify for the low half of the pot, the low hand must be 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 or lower. This version of Omaha Hi-Lo game is often called “8 or better”, or simply “Omaha 8”. It is also known to play with a 9-low qualifier instead, but this is much less popular than Omaha 8.

If there is no qualifying hand for Lo, the best Hi hand wins the whole pot.

There is discussed in older Scarne poker texts another version of Omaha in which each player gets two Hole cards and the five community cards are displayed one card at a time. This results in six rounds of betting and the player is not required to use either of his Hole cards in his final poker hand. See, SCARNE, infra at 26.

Another Hold 'Em poker type game is called Pineapple. In Pineapple, each player receives three Hole cards. The community cards are displayed three, one and one. In regular Pineapple, the player must discard one of his Hole cards before the three card flop is revealed. In Crazy Pineapple, the player must discard one of his Hole cards after the flop is revealed, but before the turn card is revealed.

SCARNE'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CARD GAMES (copyright 1973,1983) at pages 6-55, inclusive (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein) describes many draw poker and stud poker games. At pages 44-45 the method of play of Las Vegas Style Hold 'Em poker is described and tracks quite closely the description of Texas Hold 'Em poker described above.

A disadvantage of Omaha Hi-Lo poker is that the qualifier requirement for the Lo hand often disrupts a player's strategy during the play of the game. If three of the board cards are Nine or higher, there cannot be a qualifying Lo hand; so players who are remaining in the pot playing for a Lo hand can have their strategy ruined by the Fourth (Turn) card or the Fifth (River) card.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A modification of Omaha Hi-Lo is the method of play. Each player receives four Hole cards. A round of betting occurs. The community cards are displayed as a three card Flop, a one card Turn and a one card River. A round of betting occurs after each display of the community cards. After all the wagering has been completed, each player declares Hi, Lo or both. There is no qualifier for the Lo hand. A player must use two and only two of his Hole cards in each of his Hi hand and his Lo hand. The player with the best Hi hand among those players that have declared Hi wins half the pot; the player with the best Lo hand among those players that have declared Lo wins half the pot. If a player declares both Hi and Lo, then the player must win both ways in order to win.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is a modification of the method of play of Omaha Hi-Lo poker in which there is no qualifying required for the Lo hand.

Each player initially is dealt four Hole cards. A round of betting occurs.

Then the first three community cards (the Flop) is dealt and another round of betting occurs. Then a fourth community card (the Turn) is dealt and a round of betting occurs.

Then the final fifth community card (the River) is dealt and a final round of betting occurs.

After all the wagering has been completed, each player declares Hi, Lo or both. One way of declaring is for each player to hold a Hi indicator, a Lo indicator or both a Hi indicator and a Lo indicator in his closed hand. All players then open their closed hand at the same time and reveal how they have declared. Other suitable manners of declaring may also be used.

The poker hand ranking of the various player hands is then determined. A player must use two and only two of his Hole cards in each of his Hi hand and his Lo hand. The player with the best Hi hand among those players that have declared Hi wins half the pot; the player with the best Lo hand among those players that have declared Lo wins half the pot. If a player declares both Hi and Lo, then the player must win both ways in order to win. A tie hand with another player is considered to be a winning hand for the purposes of winning both ways.

There is no qualifier for the Lo hand. Therefore, there will always be at least one Lo winner and at least one Hi winner, which may be the same player.

While the invention has been illustrated with respect to its various embodiments, these embodiments should be considered as illustrative rather than limiting. Various modifications and additions may be made and will be apparent to those skilled in the art. 

1. A method of playing a poker game which is dealt using a deck of playing cards and having a plurality of players comprising: a) dealing each player four Hole cards after which a round of wagering occurs; b) displaying as community cards a three card Flop after which a round of wagering occurs; c) displaying as a community card a one card Turn after which a round of wagering occurs; d) displaying as a community card a one card River after which a round of wagering occurs; e) each player then declares whether he is going Hi, Lo or both; f) declaring as a Hi winner the player with the best high card poker hand and who has declared Hi; g) declaring as a Lo winner the player with the best low card poker hand without having any minimum low hand requirement to have the best low card poker hand and who has declared Lo; and h) a player must be both the Hi winner and the Lo winner if a player has declared both.
 2. The method of claim 1 in which at least a portion of all wagering that occurs during the play of the game is collected into a common pot; and the Hi winner is awarded a portion of the common pot and the Lo winner is awarded a portion of the common pot. 